Transcript for Families Frantically Run for Safety After Sinkhole Swallows Home

families scrambling to safety after hearing a kind of rumbling roar at daybreak. The earth opening up a sink hole swallowing homes. Abc's steve osunsami has this story. Reporter: What a wakeup call. How far is it sinking? It's just cracking. The whole house and the floors are cracking. Reporter: It was five this morning, and a giant sinkhole was swallowing homes and destroying the peace in this florida neighborhood. It looks like a meteor hit it, or the earth opened. Reporter: It opened up 70 feet wide and 50 feet deep. Police rushed seven families from their homes. Then they asked for quiet, while they listened to see if it's still growing. At this moment we are asking everyone to stay in place at this mom Reporter: This is as close as we can get to the sinkhole because officials here believe it is still moving. You can see the pool that everyone is talking about there that crashed into the center of this. You can see the pool cleaner still over there. It's very, very deep. Sinkholes happen all over america. This was was caught on camera in louisiana sucking trees into swamp. But florida is sinkhole central, and this is the area they call sinkhole alley, with a third of florida's sinkhole claims. They form when water deep underground washes away the limestone, and the earth above falls in. Really loud and I thought it was someone trying to break in. Reporter: The dupree family says they knew the sinkhole was here two years ago, but were fighting with their insurance company on how to fix it. The contractors had just started work this week. Steve osunsami, abc news, dunedin, florida.

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